TORONTO – Following a 13-minute bullpen session yesterday, Roger Clemens is convinced his balky right elbow and the bothersome blister problem on his right foot won’t keep him from starting against the Red Sox on Sunday night in Boston.
“No doubt,” Clemens said when asked if there was a trace of doubt he will go to the post.
Clemens hasn’t pitched since Sept. 3, when he was forced out of a game against the Mariners due to elbow discomfort. Two MRI exams showed ligament damage and fluid. Two cortisone shots followed.
Clemens threw in the bullpen Tuesday and yesterday. Before the Yankees’ 2-1 loss to the Blue Jays last night, he said he is making progress.
“It was fine,” said Clemens. “The guys who had eyes on me, Joe [Torre] and Gator [Ron Guidry], they were happy with it. I threw my normal amount of pitches. It wasn’t a game situation but it was more violent pen than normal. I am pleased with it. My foot has healed up and my elbow feels fine.”
Clemens, 45, has received relief from the injections.
“I am an old horse who wants to go out there and be effective,” said Clemens, who will work at Fenway Park for the first time since the 2003 ALCS.
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Noticing that Joba Chamberlain looked sluggish in his second inning of work Wednesday night, the Yankees have altered the rookie reliever’s weight room schedule. No longer will Chamberlain lift the afternoon of a game he is available to work in.
“He looked a little loggy,” Torre said.
Torre said Chamberlain will wait until after games he doesn’t work in to lift.
“The days he knows he isn’t going to pitch he can beat himself up,” Torre said.
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Tired of being heckled by Blue Jays fans down the left field line, Johnny Damon gladly accepted a $20 bill from one of them in return for the ball he caught to end the second inning. Damon took the bill and gave it to a child.
“They were on me,” said Damon, whose solo homer in the sixth was the Yanks’ only run. “I figured I might as well take the $20 and give it to the kid. Hopefully he will buy a Yankee hat.”
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The Yankees ought to bring their own pillows to Toronto. During an earlier trip, Jorge Posada was felled by a stiff neck due to the hotel pillows. And even though the Yankees switched hotels for their final stay in Canada this season, relievers Luis Vizcaino and Kyle Farnsworth woke up with ailments.
Vizcaino reported lower back problem and Farnsworth wasn’t available for all three games against the Blue Jays. Vizcaino pitched the eighth inning last night, striking out two.
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Outfielder Shelley Duncan rejoined the team last night after being diagnosed with a bone bruise in his left pelvis and a small inguinal hernia Wednesday in New York. “The doctor told me the bigger problem was the bone bruise,” said Duncan, who hopes to be available in a couple of days. . . . Jason Giambi‘s body felt a little stiff according to Torre after playing two games on artificial turf, so Wilson Betemit got the start at first last night. Betemit went 0-for-3 and fanned three times.